Holy Week

Though Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday of Holy Week were filled with harrowing experiences that seemed to be drawing Him ever nearer to His death, on Wednesday Jesus stayed out of the public eye.

Jesus and His disciples travelled to the home of a man in Bethany known as Simon the leper. In Matthew 26:6 While Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper,. I must admit, whilst I knew that Jesus spent time in Bethany, I was unaware that Simon the Leper was his host 

Simon belonged to a growing part of the population known not for their accomplishments, but for what was wrong with them. It was a difficult life being a leper, but it must also have been strangely liberating since the first thing people learned about Simon was his broken past. Simon lived among the few who did not have to pretend to be what they were not. People could choose his company or reject it, but that was who he was.

For me, there is something beautiful about this brief mention of Simon the Leper. It speaks volumes of the kind of Jesus we serve. I have no evidence, but in my minds eye I wonder if Simon was the one Leper, who having been deemed cured returned to thank Jesus.

Clearly he was healed as the law dictated that lepers could not mix with others but yet within society once a leper always a leper.

A leper's life was difficult not just because of the leprosy but maybe more so because leprosy was believed to be a curse from God. It was believed that a leper was a leper because of some heinous sin in their lives and they were under God’s judgment. But when Jesus heals He heals completely…..!

I wonder, are we guilty of the same thing as the society in Bethany? …. Once a drug addict, once an alcoholic, once an unwed mother, once an illegitimate child, once a divorcee…We must receive all those who Jesus receives.

Loving Lord, let me remember that your promise to bring to completion the good work you began in me also applies to each of your children. Burn the conviction, indelibly into my heart: it brings YOU praise when I work hard at accepting others as you accept me. So very Amen, I pray, in your matchless and merciful name. Amen